I can’t watch it anymore!
Monday night I watched Secret Life of the American Teenager. Why? Because it is something I can stare at and laugh because of the ridiculous dialogue and unrealistic nature of the plot. Never in my life have I watched a show just because I hate it, with every time hoping that it will cover a problem that really occurs on high school campuses. Having gone to a public high school myself I know what kind of environment should be portrayed in the show and it makes me mad at how “glamorous” the writers make the problems in the show seem.
I want to tell the executive producer, Brenda Hampton, that this show is completely opposite from what 7th Heaven was. I miss that show. It stayed truer to reality and actually taught teens a lesson. The “point” of Secret Life may be to teach kids that they shouldn’t have sex, but it makes it seem like everyone is doing “it” and that it is easy to be a mom at 15. Let me tell you something, Brenda, life is not that perfect for students. And not everyone in high school is having sex. Many are drinking and doing drugs, that is what this show should cover. Yes, incorporate sex into it, but be realistic about it.
Let me give you a little background on this show. It is about a teenage girl named Amy who has sex for the first time at band camp and winds up pregnant- AS A FRESHMAN! Ok, really? That innocent of a girl, who is intelligent and at band camp doesn’t know to use a condom? C’mon. Lets move on. Ricky, who is the “bad boy” of the school is the one who knocks her up. Her parents are supportive, with ridiculously cheesy diolague. Then there is Grace, a Christian, who thinks having sex is bad, her brother, who has down syndrome, and Grace’s boyfriend, Jack, the all American. Add Addriene to the mix, who is the school slut, and Amy’s two obnoxious friends and you have the extremes of teenage sterotypes. But a family show devoted to sex? It doesn’t talk about the dangers of sex, like STDs, or how hard it is to have a baby so young, or even about other things that should be included in a teenager’s “secret life”.
What you are doing here, Brenda, is creating a fantasy land of teenagers full of sex and parent issues. The dialogue is cheesy and repetitive. I ask of you, Brenda, to please look at the real picture. Look at who your targeting this show to- families and teenagers. You are sending the opposite message than what you originally wanted to these kids and getting on the bad side of many parents. Talk to teens who go to real public school to get ideas for how they talk, and then relay that information to your writers. Don’t make these actors talk like their 40 when they are really 16. Just take a look for yourself:
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Really good topic. I have never watched the show myself, but it sounds like a problem can come from this. I like how you are wanting the writers to send the right message to teenagers. Making the actor’s life look glamourous and easy to have a child can create a problem. Many high school kids may think they can handle/want a child.
I also attended a public high school, and I had a friend who did become pregnant as a freshman and had the baby during her sophomore year. The reality is that these things do happen, but this show may seem to exaggerate it.
My suggestion to you is to examine the teen pregnancy rate and take it in to consideration; and maybe address that shows like these are making it seem acceptable in today’s society for a 15 year old to have a baby. You can maybe give other examples of shows that support this behavior. You might also want to discuss the show “Teen Mom” on MTV. They do help portray that having a child is difficult as a teenager.
I’m excited to see where this goes!
I love your topic and completely agree with it, I hate this show! Just a few grammar mistakes, a few “there” and “their” that should be “they’re”. Also, I’m not sure if it’s just my computer, but when I click on the videos they say “embedding disabled by request”.
When I first started reading the blog, I’ll be honest, I looked at what you were talking about and I thought who cares about this show. But after reading your entry I believe you made some great points and I love your passion for this topic. You kept my interest and I’m excited to see what else you post on this topic. Great start!
I have never seen this show either, but from your blog I can totally see how this show is far from the truth. I am excited to see where you take this blog and if the show actually incorporate any other topics besides sex, because like you said high school is not all about sex. It would be helpful to find statistics about the show and how the viewers react to the show. Has the show changed how any current high school students behave?
I watched this show one time and was completely bored to death! It is so fake and cheesy that I cannot imagine any children actually watching it and thinking that is how stuff really happens. I hope your blog gets Brenda to fix the topics she includes in these episodes as well as the way they talk, or possibly even gets her to start a new show that portrays high school in a more realistic fashion that children can actually learn a little bit from. I love your topic!
The extent of my knowledge of this show comes from clips shown on The Soup, so I have a very one-sided view of it. That being said, what I have seen has surprised me. The show itself did not elicit surprise, but the station the show is on did. I have a hard time with the idea that a Family geared channel would play something that fantacizes teen sex.
It is rediculous how TV portrays life. Reality TV disgusts me even more so. To try and pass this trash off as normal is having detrimental effects on relationships we have. TV has been king for so long it is almost insurmountable to tell where TV ends and we begin. We have all grown up on television. Our parents basically grew up on television. It is almost inevitable that we are becoming more and more indoctrinated by condensed drama filled with consumerism. TV will always be here. But its time we have some more ubiquitous quality.